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We have some weird-ass neighbors here. (Of course, I reckon they’d say the same about me. But I’d be righter!) But it’s not all complaints. I actually have a neighbor I like now. Can you imagine it? Har! I mean, I actually enjoy seeing her consistently.  She’s very sweet and friendly to me, and we chat a little bit when we see each other outside. I hear about her family, work, and her grand kids. Or we talk about the hummingbirds and flowers. She has lots of flowers and put out a feeder for the hummingbirds, too. I knew when I saw all the plants and the hummingbird feeder, even before I met her, I’d like her. And I was right. I sense a kindred spirit in many ways, and that’s nice.

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying visiting with her quite a bit. It’s kind of funny. We do talk about our lives to one another, but it’s often in the same way you might blog about your life. Like sometimes, you might talk about feelings, the ideas, but not always get into the detail? Sometimes yes, but lots of times, not. But it’s kinda like that. And I always enjoy seeing her.

Recently, however, I had a neighbor experience with the guy who did the Water Presentation, and his daughter, whom I call Donut Girl. (Bless her, she’s probably in her early twenties, about as tactful as a 3 year old, and perhaps not the pointiest crayon of the 64-color box. But she’s also nice to me, and that goes a long way.)

The first time she ever talked to me at length, she had a package of Donut Gems–those little 6-packs you get from convenience stores–and was absolutely estatic about them, saying she was thrilled they have vitamins in them.

“Donuts with vitamins! This is the BEST thing ever!!!” she declared with glee. She was seriously excited about the fact these donuts have vitamins in them. Bobbing up and down with joy, she was. “WHERE have these been all my life?!” She wanted to know. She spent a good five minutes exclaiming how thrilled she was now that these vitamin packed donuts have shown up in her life. I smiled and nodded and used my Mom voice in agreement.

She wanted to share. So I took a donut. Not because I particularly wanted to, or was even remoted interested in the donut. I just felt like turning her down would have been akin to turning down a small child who wanted to share their cookies with you. You want to allow them that joy of sharing, you know? It’s not about the cookie, and it wasn’t about the donut.

Anyway, ever since then, I’ve thought of her as “Donut Girl.” Donut girl and Dad moved out recently, but I saw them back, sitting on the sidewalk when I was walking up to get my mail, so I said Hello to them.

“Well, looked what the cat dragged in! How are you all doing?” I innocently asked.

“Well, I’m doing good,” says Dad. “But sheeee’s not doing so well,” he indicated towards his daughter.

“Oh? I’m sorry to hear that.” I was leary of asking for details. Rightly so, considering previous conversations with Donut Girl.

“Yeah, the roommate situation didn’t work out,” said Dad, as if I knew what the Hell the roommate situation was. And as if he wasn’t too surprised to hear it didn’t.

“Yeah, I’m homeless,” she says. “We’re here to feed the cat, since I don’t have a place to take him. It will take me a few days to work it out.” S

he’d already asked me before they left if I was interested in taking another cat, and I’d already declined. The cat lived outside while they lived here, and I sometimes felt a bit sorry for him, as he got banged up in fights occassionally. But he was friendly and would sometimes let folks pet him.

 ”I was gonna ask Deanna to look after him [the other "Crazy Cat Lady" nearby], but she has so many already…”

“Ohhhh. I’m sorry to hear that.”

That’s what I said. See? I did good. No offers to help. I cannot take on another cat at this point. I have 4, one of whom is still injured from an accident last week and cannot do any more cats in this place. And while I wouldn’t have minded leaving food outside for the little fella, it would NOT have stopped there…I know myself better than that by now. I can’t let myself begin to worry about the welfare of another animal at this point in my life. My cup already runneth over with kitties.

So I felt a little bad about it for a bit, but know I dodged a “kitty aquiring” bullet with that one. I didn’t create the chaos in their lives and am not in the position to allieviate it.

I have to be honest, though. If I see the sucker outside and he looks hungry, a bowl of cat food might find it’s way outside…